Vanessa Aradia

04/09/2026

I am immensely proud of this programme and the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers teams that have bought this into fruition.

On 10 September, we launch the ICB Future Skills Challenge, beginning with my Thrive Thursday session and our members and students, before opening the programme more widely to our sponsors, partners and others across the profession.

This is about the future of work, but more importantly, it is about the future of people at work.

The future of work will ask us to understand our human value more clearly, develop it more deliberately and make it more visible.

The Future Skills Challenge has been designed to give people the opportunity to actively develop those capabilities, recognise where they are already strong and evidence the skills that will help them work confidently and effectively alongside AI.

I cannot wait to get this started.

Five capabilities. Five honest scores. One challenge. September's Thrive on a Thursday is the webinar where you play games and leave with a challenge: a live, anonymous soft skills assessment that launches the Future Skills Challenge. Turn up, join in, and walk out a founding member.

ICB members can book their place via the website: https://www.bookkeepers.org.uk/Shop/Thrive-Thursday/e/16326/

02/09/2026

Hear from Vanessa Aradia, Head of Learning & Development at ICB, in this year's Bookkeepers Summit.

Vanessa has over 30 years of experience across payroll, accountancy, education and organisational leadership. She leads ICB’s global education strategy and also runs her own accountancy practice.

In Beyond Compliance: Becoming Indispensable to Your Clients, Vanessa will explore how bookkeepers and payroll professionals can grow beyond compliance work and build services that clients genuinely value.

Book your place: https://www.bookkeeperssummit.com/

02/09/2026

Every syllabus is a promise: study this, and it will still matter when you need it.

It is quite a promise to make at the moment. The technical rules of my profession change every year. The software changes every month. And machine intelligence now holds more stored knowledge than any professional ever will, available to everyone, on demand.

So what should we promise the people who trust us to prepare them for the future?

My new essay argues that the answer was visible all along, in the oldest form of professional education we have. Knowledge is the seed, and seed matters enormously. Capability is what grows when that seed meets the soil of real work, real judgement and real consequences. The institutions that keep faith with their learners are the ones that promise, and provide, both.

The essay takes in Polanyi on tacit knowledge, the shortening half-life of technical expertise, the strongest objection to the skills argument, and the quiet redesign of apprenticeship assessment now underway, which may prove the most consequential education reform of the year.

A Syllabus Is a Promise is live now on Work Smart, Live Well. Link in the comments.

What happened when my exams met a shoebox, and what our institutions owe the people who trust them to prepare them for the future · Work Smart, Live Well · September 2026

24/08/2026

Thank you to FE News for featuring my latest article.

Information, analysis and technical support are increasingly available almost instantly. Your advantage will come from what you can do with them: how well you interpret, question, judge, adapt and apply what you know in real situations.

This puts occupational competence, real-world problem solving and adaptive expertise at the centre of the future of FE.

| Skills are the new Currency, what this Summer's Reforms ask of the FE Sector

22/08/2026

The new Work Smart, Live Well weekly is out.

This week: why rest is not the opposite of productivity, it's part of the system.

Inside:

Fallow Time, the idea your working life is missing.
A four-part model for sustainable performance.
Five ideas on the radar, including attention as an ecology and AI's cognitive trade-offs.
Eight brilliant reads, listens and watches.
One experiment to try this week: The Fallow Hour.

Free to read, with a designed PDF edition to download.

Work smart is the means. Living well is the point. 🌾

Speaker, consultant and author helping people and organisations work smarter and live better — exploring AI, leadership, sustainability and lifelong learning.

21/08/2026

Bookkeeping and payroll offer accessible, practical career pathways for people at many different stages of life.

For school leavers, they can provide a strong entry point into the finance profession. For career changers or those returning to work, they offer the opportunity to develop valuable, transferable skills. And for aspiring entrepreneurs, they can provide a route to building their own practice and supporting clients with essential financial services.

We created Be More Bookkeeper as a free introduction for anyone considering the profession and wanting to understand where it could lead.

Through our work at the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, we see every day the breadth of opportunities available across bookkeeping, payroll, qualifications, apprenticeships, employment and practice.

The profession is evolving rapidly through technology, automation and AI, creating an even greater need for people with strong financial skills, sound judgement and the confidence to support businesses well.

We’re proud to offer Be More Bookkeeper as a free starting point and would love it to reach anyone who may be considering bookkeeping or payroll as their next step.

A free e-learning course from the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. A realistic introduction to the profession. Free, self-paced, around 2 hours. Decide whether a future in bookkeeping is right for you.

21/08/2026

Elon Musk told The Economist recently that AI will soon do almost everything better than we can, "apart from being human, perhaps."

Perhaps?! 🤯

I came home from the United Nations AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva with a notebook full of questions.
Musk's throwaway "perhaps" has sharpened one of them into a piece for PQ Magazine, and it's a question I think every finance professional should sit with for a minute:
When everyone has AI, why will they choose you?

My answer is in the article, link page 28 👇

But here's the question I'd leave you with first: what's on your CV that AI couldn't put on its own?
(Elon isn't on Facebook, so he'll have to take my word for it.)

Thank you PQ Magazine for featuring the piece.


Institute of Certified Bookkeepers

https://digital.magmanager.co.uk/Reader/Index/2884154?fbclid=IwdGRleAT1GB9wZG9mAWZkaWQWUM5SaK9jSQyNbXK_PkzamQA__jgHFWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR69djfev1AGn6QcwHOR-hgakpsf2qi4Xi_jj4s-8zccUI8Xljp_22FboKhblg_aem_mJUP976jO9FG8tBlJANPfQ /28

PQ Magazine September 2026

19/08/2026

An introduction to bookkeeping for anyone who has ever wondered what the job actually involves, whether they could do it, or whether it might offer them a different kind of career.

At the heart of it is a completely free, self-paced Discover Bookkeeping course, taking around two hours and covering the real fundamentals of the role, from transactions and reconciliations to VAT, software, professional conduct and working with clients.

No experience needed. Just curiosity.

If you know someone who might make a brilliant bookkeeper, please share it with them.

A free e-learning course from the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. A realistic introduction to the profession. Free, self-paced, around 2 hours. Decide whether a future in bookkeeping is right for you.

17/08/2026

The latest Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey found that 43% of UK businesses had identified a cyber security breach or attack in the previous 12 months.

The National Cyber Security Centre is also continuing to encourage organisations to strengthen their cyber resilience, particularly as AI makes phishing, impersonation and fraud more sophisticated.

Bookkeepers and payroll professionals routinely work with financial information, payroll data, bank details, HMRC systems and sensitive client information. Cyber security therefore needs to sit alongside the other professional responsibilities we already take seriously.

This week’s ICB Thrive session focuses on cyber security, looking at current risks and the practical steps professionals can take to review their own processes and reduce vulnerabilities.

Very timely, and well worth an hour of your week.

Shop Details

14/08/2026

Institute of Certified Bookkeepers qualifications have always been rooted in practical, workplace-relevant learning, so having the Level 3 Certificate in Bookkeeping and Accounts recognised within the Assistant Accountant apprenticeship pathway feels like a very natural fit.

A great milestone for ICB and another valuable route for learners building a career in the profession.

ICB's Level 3 Certificate in Bookkeeping and Accounts is now included on the mandated qualifications list for the Level 3 Assistant Accountant apprenticeship standard.

The change means apprentices following the Assistant Accountant apprenticeship will now have a direct route to achieving an ICB qualification as part of their training. It opens up another pathway into the bookkeeping profession, helping more people build the skills, knowledge and confidence needed for a successful career, while giving employers access to highly trained bookkeeping professionals.

Read more: https://www.bookkeepers.org.uk/resources/news/apprenticeships/assistant-accountant-apprenticeship/a/10670